A painted deck can add beauty to the home and enhance the landscape. A yard with a beautiful deck will always look more attractive than one without a deck. There are some important tips to keep in mind when painting a deck beginning with never painting over wood that has been oiled previously. The paint won’t stick, and the resulting mess will haunt you forever. The following are other useful tips for painting a deck to ensure a successful outcome.

1.The first step in painting a deck is to thoroughly clean the wood and let the wood completely dry. There are several quality cleaners on the market, and your local home improvement store can recommend a cleaner and the safety precautions you must take when using it. Use a pressure washer if the deck is very dirty.

2. Nails need to be secured and if necessary, larger nails should replace loose nails. Use a nail with a grip feature to secure the wood to the deck frame. The nails should be countersunk and the hole should be filled with an exterior grade, very high quality putty. All excess putty should be removed.

3. If the deck has any rough surfaces, then it might be best to sand these with an 80 grit to obtain a smooth deck surface. A drum sander will not only smooth out the rough surfaces to give an even look to the deck, but it will also enable the paint to adhere better.

4. All six sides of each piece of wood in the deck must be painted. Any part of the wood in the deck that is not painted will absorb moisture that naturally rises from under the decking. Once the unpainted surfaces are subjected to moisture, the painted surfaces will begin to deteriorate with several surface problems, and the deck will look terrible.

5. Use a high grade polyurethane caulk where the deck joins the home and the railing. Settle for nothing less than a polyurethane product.

6. Use a high grade oil-based paint on every exposed area of the wood.